Join us for sessions hosted by an MCELA Executive Board member, featuring a cool teacher or teacher team demonstrating what is working in their classroom(s) with a conversation on best practices. Focus on the positive and what's working!
Salutations, demonstrations & conversations!
Wednesdays from 4:30 - 5:30 via Zoom.
Salutations, demonstrations & conversations!
Wednesdays from 4:30 - 5:30 via Zoom.
2021 - 2022 School Year
- December–Break
- January 19th–Theater in the Literature/Composition Classroom: Breathing Life Into the Written Word
with Sheila Bennett, John Bapst Memorial High School
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Recording available in Member Access page! Theater In The Literature/Composition Classroom: Breathing Life Into The Written Word Shakespeare! Miller! Deveare-Smith! Atwood?!? At first glance, one of these names appears to not be like the others. Though Margaret Atwood is a renowned author, her name is usually not the first that comes to mind when we think of brilliant playwrights, but her work certainly establishes dramatic tension and features engaging dialogue. This session will explore how theatrical skills can be applied in the classroom to deepen investment and heighten comprehension of prose works that were not initially intended for the stage. |
- February–Break
- March 16th–Organizing Units Using Learning for Justice’s Social Justice Standards
with Bridget Wright & Libby Newhouse, Noble High School
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Organizing Units using Social Justice Standards We'll discuss how we've rearranged our curriculum to align with Learning for Justice's Social Justice Standards. These standards can provide a great roadmap for your year, even if you aren't using them for grading purposes. We'll share how they've informed our work, and brainstorm ways to implement them in ways both big and small in your own classrooms. |
- April 13th–Teaching Poetry
with Todd McKinley, Leonard Middle School
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During this session, you will learn about and try a number of approaches to teaching poetry. More than any other genre, appreciating poetry comes through the creation of poetry, playing with language and reading poetry out loud. You will leave this session knowing you can introduce students to poetry and planting the seeds of a life-long love for the written and spoken word. You might even discover an interest in writing your own poetry... |
- May 4th–Peer Revision
with Courtney McCann, Marshwood Middle School
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This workshop will focus on protocols to foster productive peer reviewing in high school and middle school English classrooms. We will discuss ways of focusing peer review comments in order to help students provide real, actionable feedback for each other, with the goal of improving their own writing as well as the writing of their peers. We will also go over different strategies for encouraging reflective, substantive revision after peer reviews have taken place.
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Recordings of workshops from earlier in the 2021-22 school year:
- November 17th–Student Reflection & Learning Goals
with Beth Carlson, Kennebunk High School
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Recording available in Member Access page! Student Reflection and Learning Goals Based on ideas in Sarah Zerwin's book, Pointless, I will share the success I've had in having students choose learning goals and reflect on their progress from quarter to quarter and across the year. This has transformed the way my students and I think about grades and has enabled my students to focus on growth instead of failure. |
- October 20th–Roadmapping: A Visual Approach to the Learning Journey
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Recording available in Member Access page! Roadmapping: A Visual Approach to Learning Using the backward design process, plan and execute unit roadmaps for students so they can monitor, track, and pace their own learning. |
- September 15th–In Search of More Equitable & Motivating Grading
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Recording available in Member Access page! Patti Forster, NBCT, an English teacher and Department Head at Camden Hills Regional High School in Rockport Maine, and the 2021 Knox County Teacher of the Year will share both the why and the what of more inclusive grading practices. In this What's Working Wednesday webinar Patti will share details of how she has been changing her grading practices in the past few years to be more equitable and motivating, and she will share how she is shifting her practices even more this year. |
- August 25th (prerecorded click here or below for access)–Class Routines & Rituals
with Bridget Wright, Noble High School
2020 - 2021 School Year
May 26: Stephanie Wade, Assistant Director of Writing at Bates College; Eliana Al-Konsul, Bates College '22; Patty MacKinnon, English and ELL Teacher Lewiston High School; Alexandria Onuoha, Bates College ’20, PhD student Suffolk University; and Sarah (Raph) Raphael, Bates College ‘21 talking about Black Languages Matter: Code Meshing and Multilingual Poetry as Anti-racist Practices. Click here or below for the recording of this session.
April 28: Patti Forster, Iris Eichenlaub, and Sara Cole-Pardun from Camden Hills Regional High School talking about race, culture, and identity in the classroom. Click here or below for a recording of this session.
March 24: Bridget Wright and Libby Newhouse from Noble High School talking about researching through podcasting